Becoming a Community Builder, “Big Picture Thinking” is the third of six webcasts based on community leadership competencies. It will be delivered by Ian Hill on Friday, March 26th at 10:00 am and is free as the result of funding from Rural Alberta’s Development Fund, EnCana, Cenvous and Canwest.
For leaders to be effective today, they need to “shift their thinking from parts to whole, from things to relationships, from structures to processes, from hierarchies to networks, from the rational to the intuitive, from analysis to creation. In this broadcast, Ian will explore the importance of a proactive, system thinking/ holistic approach and how to establish it as a pillar of your leadership style, as you strive to become better community builder! .
Participants will learn:
– What systems thinking is and how it can make you more effective today
– How to generate creative and innovative ideas through an “outside the box” planning/problem solving approach
– A proven “system” for the implementation of organizational change
If you missed the previous two webcasts, you can find them archived at http://acecommunities.ca/community-builder/archive/. To participate in the next live webcast, simply visit http://acecommunities.ca/community-builder/ on Friday, March 26, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. The remaining webcasts are scheduled for the last Friday of each month at 10:00 am April 30, May 28, and June 25th.
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And, fellow leadership webcast participants, here is your homework for this month:
-Compete your ‘Big Picture Thinking’ Competency Survey
-Laminate the 5 new steps of ‘Out-of-the-box’ thinking into cards and apply these statements to your next decision making opportunity
-Complete your Commitment Action Plan
-Watch the Supplemental Video on Big Picture Thinking
Good luck!
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It seems that I am a bit late on my blogging this month. My apologies! Part of the problem, it seems, is that I have been caught up in the little details of life in general lately and lost my glimpse of the big picture. Very apropos for a month dedicated to connecting with big picture thinking. This disconnect with the big picture seems to happen, I notice, sometimes as we rush from meeting to meeting from deadline to deadline and from place to place. It is great to be reminded that there is, in fact, a larger plan out there and that successful leaders know not only how to tap into but how to cultivate these systems for the implementation of organizational change.
I had the distinct pleasure of spending some quality time with Brenda Herchmer, the Director of ACE Communities, last week. We were recently together in Hobbema presenting a community building workshop. It was here that she touched based on the idea that some of us are forest people and that some of us are trees. This metaphor falls in line with the idea that some of us can see the forest (the big picture) for what it is while some us excel as trees - the detail people. While I am quite happily a tree person, I now wonder if I need to spend some more time with my head poking out of the proverbial foliage.
So, in the spirit of the third competency for an effective community leader, I commit to spending the next month treading where I might not naturally go. The first step: my competency survey to see how far this journey towards big picture thinking must take me.
More on those results soon….
Janet
